How do I verify foreign credentials claimed by a doctor abroad?

Letters after a doctor's name can identify a licence, specialty certificate, examination or membership. Ask for the full designation, issuer and number, then check both that credential and permission to practise where your treatment will take place.

How do I check a US claim?

In ABMS's Certification Matters, enter at least two surname letters and refine the search. Check the exact board and specialty: not every organisation using “board” belongs to ABMS. Plastic-surgery certification can also be checked with the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

Board certification is voluntary and separate from licensing. ASPS's directory distinguishes international membership from US or Canadian board-certification badges. For a US licence, use FSMB's DocInfo and follow the state board for current status and orders. Board actions are not the same as malpractice claims, and not every complaint is public.

Which Canadian college should I use?

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada directory checks certification and Fellowship, not provincial permission. Use the claimed province's regulator: Ontario's CPSO register searches by number or name and links discipline information. Include inactive records for historical claims.

For dentistry, RCDC verifies FRCDC Fellowship or MRCDC membership; its member directory requires member access. Ontario's RCDSO register instead covers dental registration, qualifications and discipline. Check the provincial specialist certificate separately from Fellowship.

What do FRCS and UK registration mean?

Identify the issuing Royal College. Edinburgh's member search checks current standing; RCS England's certificate checker uses a reference number. Ask the examination team about an unresolved FRCS award: a course-certificate checker does not necessarily verify historical Fellowship.

Search the GMC register by name or number. Read registration, licence, specialist or GP entry and published restrictions separately: registration can exist without a licence. For dentists, check the GDC register and specialist list. The list regulates specialist titles, not every procedure a dentist may perform. Publication limits apply to conduct information.

How do I check Gulf credentials?

Identify the actual UAE issuer: DHA, Abu Dhabi DOH or MOHAP. DHA's status check takes a unique ID or licence number. Registration or eligibility is not automatically an active facility-linked licence. Saudi SCFHS checks registration validity by practitioner ID, separately from employment or facility authorisation.

For other UAE claims, use Abu Dhabi DOH's services or MOHAP's licensing route to request verification from the named issuer. A DHA result does not verify a different authority's licence.

Use Qatar's DHP practitioner search with the practitioner's name and licence details ready, requesting confirmation if access is blocked; QCHP is a legacy name. In Bahrain's NHRA lists, select the medical or dental profession and match the licence. Ask the regulator about restrictions that the public result does not explain.

Follow Doctor/Institute Information Search or License Information Search in Kuwait's ministry services; application tracking is not an issued licence. For Oman, obtain the name and licence number and request ministry verification. An application or renewal service is not a public patient-search register.

What should I check in Australia?

Search Ahpra's practitioner register by identity or number and profession. Read registration type, specialty, conditions and published reprimands; consult cancelled or prohibited records where relevant. Conditions can have different reasons, and not all complaints are public.

Foreign-trained applicants must meet the relevant regulator's requirements. None of these overseas credentials guarantees an outcome or replaces authorisation in your treatment destination.

Checked on 23 October 2026.